21SEP

UKRI puts £162m into two institutes

1 min read

16:52UTC

UK Research and Innovation allocated £162 million on 14 September, £95 million to the Henry Royce Institute and £67.7 million to the Rosalind Franklin Institute.

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Key takeaway

Two shared-facility institutes take £162 million that small companies will use without owning.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the national research funding body, allocated £162 million on 14 September, of which £95 million goes to the Henry Royce Institute for advanced materials and £67.7 million to the Rosalind Franklin Institute for life-sciences technology ¹. Neither institute is a laboratory in one building. Both operate shared equipment and expertise that university groups and small companies book rather than buy, which is why an allocation to two named institutes reaches companies that will never appear on the award list. Capital equipment of this kind sets what a British spinout can attempt without raising the money to buy an instrument first. UKRI has been issuing awards through a period when its own sponsor department's name has not settled on gov.uk , and the allocations have gone out regardless.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the government body that funds scientific research, gave £162m to two national institutes. £95m went to the Henry Royce Institute, which researches new materials and is based in Manchester, and £67.7m went to the Rosalind Franklin Institute, which develops new technology for life sciences and is based at Harwell in Oxfordshire. Both institutes provide shared equipment and expertise that individual universities and companies could not afford alone, letting researchers across the country use advanced facilities through one national body rather than each building their own.

Sources:UK Research and Innovation

Mentions:UKRI →Henry Royce Institute →Rosalind Franklin Institute →Harwell →

First Reported In

Update #15 · Nscale takes $103.4bn of contracts to NYSE

UK Research and Innovation· 21 Sept 2026

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